3 Types Of Ferret Diets - Which One Is Best For Your Ferret?

The great confusion around ferret diets. I'm not sure if you have noticed...there is a lot of debate and confusion in the ferret community these days about ferret diets. Everyone seems to have an opinion about what is best to feed your ferret.

So let me break this down for you. Essentially there are 3 ways that you can feed your ferret (and there are positives and negatives for each option).

The 3 Types of Ferret Diets

1. Commercial Ferret Diets

These are typically dry, kibble type foods that are mass produced by large companies. Some companies care about ferrets and produce very high quality kibbles and other companies only seem to care about their own profits and produce horrible quality kibbles, that do more harm than good, to your ferret. So it's important to know how to recognise a good vs bad commercial diet in order to keep your ferret healthy and keep potential vet costs low (bad commercial diets have been linked to the onset of certain diseases and illnesses in ferrets which can drive up vet costs exponentially).

If you are worried that you might be feeding the wrong type of food to your ferret or even unsure if the type of ferret food you are feeding is the right one then I would suggest joining the Ferret-World Membership so we can anylyse your ferrets diet and give you tips on how to keep your ferret happier and healthier. To learn more about the Ferret-World Membership here

2. Raw Food Diets

This generally consists of raw meat products, organs, bones, flesh that you can purchase in a grocery store. With this type of diet it is important to plan ahead and combine a variety of meat products in the right quantities in order to get a nutritionally balanced diet for your ferret. Done improperly, without planning and without knowledge of what needs to be fed, when, can lead to your ferret becoming nutritionally deficient which will affect its overall health negatively. Done properly, your ferret can experience greater health and wellbeing than it would on a commercial diet.

3. Whole prey diets

New research is showing that these can be some of the most balanced and nutritions types of foods to feed your ferret. However, as with the raw food diet, planning and knowledge is important in order to do it correctly. A poorly executed whole prey diet can cause nutritional deficiency and poor health in your ferret. Also it's worth mentioning, you also need to be very strict with safely handling raw foods and whole prey foods otherwise you could put your ferret and family at risk of different types of serious food poisoning. So the decision to change to whole raw food diets and whole prey diets should not be taken lightly.

In summary...

Raw food and whole prey diets can be more expensive and less convenient (more work goes into them then with a commercially fed diet) but if the commitment is there they can be a wonderful source of health and wellbeing for your ferrets in the sense of nutrition, mental and physical stimulation.

There is so much that needs to be researched and explored in order to get your ferrets nutrition right, no matter which diet you choose.